May 31, 2011

Television programs from the 1950s like "Father Knows Best" helped embed the single-family home in the American mind as a symbol of everything that was good. Jim Anderson, who worked in the insurance industry, came home weekdays to have dinner with his wife and three children in the dining room. Outside was a yard. Upstairs from the dining room the Andersons had their bedrooms.

Economic realities of the second decade of the 21st century are deep-sixing that symbolism. THE NEW YORK TIMES reports that home ownership in the U.S. has dropped to 66.4 percent. It's supposed to go lower. Not only is owning a home not perceived as a solid investment [actually it never was]. It's become such a worry that it's lost plenty of its halo. Visit a friend or colleague whose house value is under water and there isn't much warm and fuzzy associated with what was once anointed as a piece of heaven.

The apartment will roar back as a platform for living, having friends over, and working out conflicts with our significant others. "I Love Lucy" was so refreshing back in that time when we were all supposed to want to be The Andersons because the Richardo family resided in an apartment. They had fights. They kept information from one another. Their friends who also lived in an apartment came to visit.

Despite the wild popularity of "I Love Lucy," at the free art lessons at the Jersey City Public Library, the instructor insisted we portray where we lived as a single-family house. No fool, I didn't sketch out the five railroad-room apartment on the third floor of a tenement in which not ony my family but relatives immigrating from Poland also went about our lives. At the end of the 1990s, I thought I had made it when I purchased on the Gold Coast of Connecticut a house just like the Anderson's.

More multi-unit buildings are going up, reports THE NEW YORK TIMES. Children born now might consider the single-family home not only a dumb financial move but very unsustainable. Trees will belong in the park, not surrounding a human dwelling.

Attractive females and males, just like us not-so-beautiful people, have to earn a living. So, they go to work. That's where the trouble had begun for organizations ranging from the International Monetary Fund [IMF] to American Apparel. At the very least, superiors, colleagues, and subordinates fall in love with them. Cupid's arrow can create upheaval in even the most disciplined shops. At the worst, others foist on them unwanted attention.

No surprise, corporations as well as nonprofits want to prevent the hit to their brand from allegations or truths about cavorting around the water cooler. Along with decline of brand equity could be lawsuits.

Increasingly they are finding help from an unusual source: The Ethical Guerrilla Mark Matousek. His new book "Ethical Wisdom: What Makes Us Good" is resonating around the world for its simple approach to how groups and individuals can keep out of hot water - and even, yes, be good. Its unique credibility comes from the fact that Matousek presents the latest scientific research on what shapes human behavior. At the top of the list are those mirror neurons or our hard-wiring for empathy.

May 30, 2011

It's the generational divide. The grand old masters of the GOP are powerful, rich, but so out of touch that they can't get anyone elected. Think Cheney, Ailes, Rove, Dobbs. The current mavericks like Palin lack the sense of mission [except for money and personal fame] which previous mavericks like Reagan had. The emerging new blood such as Linda McMahon are still newbies. They lack the infrastructure and hands-on experience to actually make it all the way to the White House.

So, the GOP has to just go through the motions for 2012. There's no one who can win. If the party successfully rebrands itelf after looking foolish in 2012, then it can easily return to the White House. The grand old masters will pitch in money but not strategy. They will recognize they're liabilities, no longer assets.

Former newbies will have been roughed up enough to become as astute politicos as the Clintons. Here in Connecticut, it's often said that had McMahon been forced to grovel for money she might have learned plenty quickly enough to beat Richard Blumenthal. Her wealth prevented that progress on the learning curve which occurs when you barnstorm for the bucks.

The most interesting story to chronicle will be this rebranding. The humor will come from observing the heavyweights attempt to maintain control. They will become caricatures of conservatives. Some like Ailes already seem to be.

The genius will be seen in how the emerging players create a fresh ethos of what it means to be a conservative during the second decade of the 21st century. Like Malcolm X, they may tell the former power structure to leave them alone, just send money.

When it comes to serial killers, things go binary. There are those who ignore the pull force of the melodrama and those who feed it. The media is usually among the latter.

NEW YORK MAGAZINE carries a major article on the families of the young women allegedly murdered by the Long Island serial killer or killers. If the LI killer or killers are arrested then NEW YORK MAGAZINE will likely focus on their families. There are likely to be tales of pets which disappeared while dad was still living at home and how he never let anyone into that one chest he kept in the attic. We have the profile down cold, don't me.

We learned what we know from "Criminal Minds." That iconic series knows that to exploit the full potential of a serial killer, families must be brought into the loop. Replacing JJ on the elite team is the daughter of a serial killer who snuffed out the lives of many women in the west. She struggles with her inability to forgive him. On one case she took too big a risk. The team told her she was doing that to make up for what her father had done and not to do it again. During the past several episodes she has been playing it by the book.

Me? Since I have so many internal demons to deal with daily, I never have paid attention to serial killers. In university town Ann Arbor, Michigan during the late 1960s, the ANN ARBOR NEWS [which no longer exists] had front page stories of the serial killer of young girls. My family in Jersey City, New Jersey got fully into it and organized a prayer group at Our Lady of Sorrows parish to keep me safe. When John Norman Collins was arrested and convicted I felt no sense of relief. Then as well as now I recognize that serial killing is a continuum. At the extreme is loss of life. More common is soul death through unkind criticism, not paying attention, and moral certitude.

We watch "Criminal Minds" because it's guaranteed the serial killer is apprehended. Would the powers-that-be dare experiment with the killer eluding the great profilers?

May 29, 2011

Stan Larsen, who turns himself in for beating up the teacher, will never be able to support his family again. Incidentally, he was the one who called 911 reporting that the teacher needed medical help. Stan sits in jail staring out the window.

Mitch Larsen, who put in play Stan's attack on the teacher, gets a call from the bank. Their savings account is missing the more than $17,000 she assumed that was in it. Meanwhile, checks are bouncing. Also, since their moving assistant Belko admitted to also beating up the teacher, there is no one to run the moving company. Either Mitch will have to get a job fast or the family will lose the house. On the street will be Mitch, the two boys, and the Mitch's sister. Mitch, of course, knows she was wrong in assuming that the teacher had done it.

Sarah is doomed. Her son Jack continues to act out. It went from sending around crime scene photos to having his friends over to the boat for beer and smokes. Rick, the man who wants to marry her, comes to bring her and Jack to California to start a new life. She can't go. It seems she probably had had a nervous breakdown. Rick alludes to her being in the hospital and staring at the wall. She and Jack left the boat in a huff and are bunking in a motel.

In a photo, there Richmond is, shaking Rosie's hand. Could he have decided to get to know this pretty girl better? He is still a suspect. Politics is hardening him. He is cutting the City Council's salary. They were not loyal to him.

The latest clue about Rosie's possible killer leads Sarah to a casino a boat trip away. Belko overheard Rosie on the phone saying she was going there. Did Rosie meet her killer there.

The teacher may or may not make it. The horror is that his wife, who will soon deliver their child, doubted him.

Sarah blames herself for positioning the teacher as the prime suspect. Stephen, the stronger one who keeps growing, won't cave to self-blame. He has been clean in NA for six months. It looks like he intends to stay clean.

Aside from Stephen, everyone else's life has been irreversibly damaged.

But that isn't an age-related trend. Today on television, Betty White did a commercial for the senior-citizen organization AARP. The graphics were, you got it, Brown & Pink. A little brown as background, lots of pink.

Those who want to be part of the current zeitgeist would be smart to ditch that classic Navy Blue. It's as much an anachronism as the 20th century Organization Man.

Had Hillary Clinton not become a betrayed political wife could she have managed to become the player she now is as U.S. Secretary of State? Being cast on the global stage as a betrayed political wife can be the role of a lifetime. There's much to deconstruct in this, as Emily Nussbaum does well in NEW YORK MAGAZINE.

The fictional counterpart of Hillary is Alicia Florrick. She might trump Hillary's performance in being a smoother actress. Her steely control, which comes across as poise softened by her doe-eyed look, masks everything. We the viewers are clueless as to what Alicia really wants, what she has outgrown, and what she is willing to use and abuse to get to where she can go. One reason the show is such a smash is that, like "Mad Men" and "The Killing," it's filled with ambiguity. We gawk at what the characters are doing, especially their myopic choices. We keep coming back for more because we are smug enough to believe that we can find out who they really are.

Among the betrayed political wives who did well, of course, was the late Elizabeth Edwards. She got the spotlight, appearing on top show such as "Larry King." She published a best-seller about dealing with the tough patches such as how her husband humiliated her. And she had to know that around the world we would all be reading her good-bye on Facebook. We have a hunch that Elizabeth loved the attention.

The one wife who didn't seem to make hay from the public pain has been Silda Spitzer. But her children are still young. She has plenty of career runway ahead if she wants a decent ROI on suffering.

May 28, 2011

Staffers fleeing HuffingtonPost. That's what Mediabistro reports. Those exiting contend the environment is brutal. My 13 weeks as a contract blogger with the outfit were exactly like that. Only now it's being outed. No coincidence, the market for writers has recovered.

But that isn't the only bad news for AOL/Huff. Yahoo is ahead in page views. Also, AOL/Huff, like Gawker, can't seem to outgrow the mashup of righteousness and adolescent snark. After all, we have moved on to the silly season of Campaign 2012. What we want on our digital sites is plenty more sophisticated.

After a good run, Huff seems to have been overtaken by the same bad karma which has dogged AOL for years. My prediction is that the AOL/Huff entity will go the way of MySpace. Chief Executive Officer Tim Armstrong will try to sell it and no one will be lining up. At the World Economic Forum in Davos, Arianna Huffington will be snubbed - or maybe be a no-show.

May 27, 2011

They say that opportunity comes from left field. It may just do that forAnna Alaburda. This honors 2008 graduate from Thomas Jefferson School of Law has not found a full-time position practicing law. So, this week Alaburda filed a lawsuit against her alma mater contending that it engaged in "fraudulent and deceptive business practices." That is, the school did not provide accurate data about employment and compensation of its graduates.

Alaburda is not the only one to take up the cause for law school transparency. U.S. Senator Barbara Boxer has been on the American Bar Association to make law schools tell the real jobs/money story, which is usually not pretty.

Like most activists these days, both women are bound to gain plenty from their association with this high-profile cause. After all, we all know someone or the son/daughter of someone who earned a JD, isn't employed in law, and is saddled with six-figure student loans. Public relations is the most effective tool for career advancement.

Prediction: Sooner than later, Alaburda will have a good job with some earnest organization.

Those of us content-providers [pre-glut in journalism we were called or called ourselves writers] who pulled out all stops to master social media now are in the catbird seat. In four days I have had five in-person interviews for work.

Those of you just waking up and smelling the roar of the digital might read my iconic post on search engine optimization. It has had more than a million downloads Download LinktoSEOarticlebyJaneGenova.